Should we be worried that genes can be edited so easily?

The ability to edit genes with speed and precision will revolutionise healthcare. But what if it lands in the wrong hands, or experiments go wrong?

By Michael Le Page

After Dolly the sheep was born, several groups announced they were going to clone people. A bizarre religious cult and a maverick fertility doctor even claimed success in the 2000s, but these claims have never been taken seriously. As far as we know, no clone of an adult human has yet been born, not least because we have struggled to create cloned human embryos.

CRISPR gene editing, by contrast, is relatively easy. It’s not the sort of thing anybody could do in their kitchen, but with sufficient money a small team of rogue biologists and IVF doctors could create the first gene edited baby right now. “This is the thing that scares me the most,” says Robin Lovell-Badge of the Francis Crick Institute.

In fact, there is nothing to stop IVF clinics trying germline gene editing in many countries, including the US. “You can easily imagine clinics trying to boost

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